The lights didn't even bothering flickering. They just blinked out and left her in the darkness. Her hand swept across the desk in search of the tiny flashlight she had scavenged from under her bed. When her hands found purchase on the cool plastic cylinder, she hurrah'ed with joy and twisted it on.

"Did you find a flashlight?" Yongguk called from the living room. He had been reading while she studied in her room. Kana followed the dim beam out to the living room and watched the light slowly ebb away.

She made a tiny sound of despair in the darkness and he chuckled from his seat.

"It's official, boogeyman is going to come and kill me," she said miserably. Kana hated the dark and hated housing even more for scheduling maintenance projects at night, when electricity was essential for warding off boogeymen.

"It's not that serious," he chuckled again.

A few steps later, Kana tripped on a stray wire and connected with the floor.

"Are you okay?" he asked urgently. She clambered to her feet and heard him get off the couch.

"Gukkie...I'm scared." There was some shuffling and she watched him come closer with her night-adjusted vision. She instinctively reached out her hands and found purchase on his chest and arm...well defined chest and arm. The nervous thudding in her chest accelerated.

He took her by the wrist and led her to the couch where he sat her down. The lamplight glow from the windows barely reached his face. He knelt down by her feet, hands still on hers.

"He's going to kill us both," she whispered humorlessly, eyes darting around the darkness, fear not exactly of the boogeyman, just the ink that pressed down around them. The eerie silence of the night was not helping; if anything, it amplified the sound of her pulse in her ears.

Yongguk definitely rolled his eyes as he tugged on her hands to get the attention back to himself. "Stop being silly." His tone was serious (almost reprimanding) and Kana turned to him in mock anger.

"Sorry for being such a wimp in your manly presence. Some of us still rely on nightlights while you developed night vision."

He actually laughed this time. The nerve! "But I'm right here. Doesn't that make you feel safer...or better?" When she gave him a dirty look in response, he added, "Than if you were fighting off boogeymen by yourself?" She resumed looking around the darkened room, imagining more vicious things than boogeymen at this point.

"Yah," he called. When she didn't respond, he leaned up and pecked her lips, to which she leaned back in surprise. Her eyes were much better adjusted now and she saw the shy gummy smile on his face as if it were radiating. He did it again, only this time lingering. Kana gave in, leaning forward to deepen the kiss, to distract herself from whatever the hell was going to run a chainsaw through both of them.

The lights groaned as they came back on. Yongguk fell back onto his haunches, face tinged with pink as if they had exposed his ulterior motive. Kana was similarly colored and she hastily got to her feet, picking up the useless flashlight from where she had dropped it whilst wrapping her arm around his neck.

They went back to studying, embarrassed by their sudden intimacy despite nearly three months of dating already. A couple minutes later when the lights went out again though, they had no trouble finding each other.